Meet edua restrepo castaño

edua restrepo castaño is an educator, visual artist and organizer, as well as a community leader and LGBTIQ+ consultant at a local and international level.

After receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Tufts University (Boston) she went on to work
in education programs with an arts and STEM emphasis, initially as a photography
instructor in New York public schools and subsequently at the Whitney Museum where
she assumed a position of both pedagogic and administrative responsibilities. While
working at this museum she led the Youth Insights Introductions program which
offered free after school engagement to ELL (English Language Learner) high school
students of immigrant experience that were also interested in the arts; guiding their
engagement with the field and working with contemporary exhibiting artists to create
and exhibit their own work at the institution.

In 2019 Edua relocated back to her homeland of Quindío, Colombia in hopes of
actively advocating for the trans and gender dissident communities of the region that
raised her, where LGBTIQ+ rights have been historically overstepped. As of early 2020
she became a member in of the LGBTIQ+ city advisory council working with Circasia’s
city mayor office, to both hold the administration accountable and develop projects
of positive impact for the community such as “Granjas de Unidad'' a farming project
in its early stages that will offer food, training, and jobs to gender and sexual dissident
individuals in hopes of dignifying and broadening their professional prospects in the
agricultural economy that leads the region.